"Religious Liberty" - The Far Right's Next Attack on Marriage Equality

If one follows Christofascist organizations' websites, one sees constant messaging that gays are child molesting perverts going to hell, woman who use contraception are whores and sluts, and that the "sanctity of marriage is under attack even though it is evangelicals themselves who have the highest divorce rate.  One also sees constant whining that "religious freedom" is under attack.  In the mind of the Christofascist this translates to the fact that increasingly, the larger society doesn't want Christofascist religious beliefs imposed on them.  To the sick minds of the Christofascists, anything that restricts their ability to ride rough shod over others and/or to ignore the rights of others is an attack on their "religious freedom."  It's a very selfish mindset, but, in my view, there are few people more selfish than far right Christians.  

The irony, of course, is that same civil law sex marriage and other claimed threats would never be seen as attacks on religious liberty by the Founding Fathers who viewed religious liberty quite simply: citizens should be allowed to attend the churches that they wanted to attend, no particular church would have a monopoly on performing marriages - e.g., there was time in Virginia when only marriages in Anglican churches were "official" - and the general citizenry not be required to pay taxes to support a particular denomination.  None of the things the Christofascists rail about run afoul of this simple concept of freedom of religion.  Rather, their complaint is they are not being allowed to force others to live by their fear and hate based religious dogma.  

A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at the coming Christofascist attack on marriage equality under the banner of protecting religious freedom.  It's a disingenuous story line, but one ran expect Republicans to none the less stampede to prostitute themselves to the Christofascists by embracing the lie.  Here are highlights:

Alarmed by the broad expansion of same-sex marriage set in motion by the U.S. Supreme Court, religious conservatives are moving their fight to state legislatures - seeking exemptions that would allow some groups, companies and people with religious objections to refuse benefits or service for gay spouses.

Winning sweeping carve-outs for faith-affiliated adoption agencies or individual wedding vendors, though, will be an uphill battle. Public attitudes against exceptions have hardened, and efforts by faith groups in states where courts, not lawmakers, recognized same-sex unions have had little success.

Gay advocates say broad carve-outs perpetuate the discrimination they had been working to end. 

That argument gained currency after the high court's Hobby Lobby ruling in June. It decided the arts-and-crafts chain and other "closely held" private businesses with religious objections could opt out of providing employees the free contraceptive coverage required by the Affordable Care Act. Liberal groups were outraged, and many promised to aggressively oppose exceptions for faith groups.

"I think there's a broad consensus that the rules should apply to everyone, which is why we withdrew our support from ENDA," said Jennifer Pizer, senior counsel at the national gay rights group Lambda Legal. "If you have different standards, then it communicates a message that some kinds of discrimination are not as serious as others."

The religious exemption fight isn't about what happens inside the sanctuary. First Amendment protections for worship and clergy are clear. . . . the high court decision last week to turn away appeals by states trying to protect their same-sex marriage bans moves the debate over exemptions into territory that is more conservative, politically and religiously. Utah, Nevada and Idaho are heavily Mormon. South Carolina, where the attorney general is fighting to uphold the state's gay marriage ban despite the court ruling, is largely evangelical Protestant.

But a controversy in Arizona in February over exemptions showed the limits on the public acceptance of broad opt-outs, even in conservative-leaning states. When lawmakers expanded protections in the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the national backlash from business leaders, gay rights groups and others was so intense that Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the measure.

"There will be a temptation to enact broad exemptions in states that otherwise would oppose same-sex marriage," said John Green, a religion and politics expert at the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics. "However, overly broad exemptions can backfire as well: They can be perceived as intolerant and discriminatory."

It is safe to say that here in Virginia, at the direction of The Family Foundation, a hate group in all but formal designation, some Republican political whores will be introducing exemption bills so that the "godly folk" can continue to mistreat others.